Numbers 36

KADESH TO CANAANNumbers 20-36.IN our study of the remaining chapters of this Book of Numbers, we commence with the Children of Israel at Kadesh and conclude with them on the borders of Canaan; hence our subject, “From Kadesh to Canaan”.By a reference to your maps you will see that Kadesh-Barnea is only a little way removed from the promised land. One would imagine that when Israel had come so near to their divinely appointed inheritance, nothing short of death or a Divine command would keep them from immediate occupation of their promised home and prospective possessions. If, instead of the murmuring incited by the report of the ten spies, they had turned mutinous, and without waiting for a command from Moses, had rushed, mob-like, over the land, claiming every piece upon which they set foot, and occupying every city whose gates they could force, the action would have seemed more natural than that which is recorded of them.It is reported of a company of crusaders that, coming near to the city of Jerusalem and beholding its hilltops, some fell upon their faces, others upon their knees, all began to pray, many to weep, until finally, at a signal from their leader, each man sprang to his feet and shouted three times. “Jerusalem! Jerusalem! Jerusalem! City of the King!

City of the King! City of the King!” and then breaking into a mob they rushed with all speed to see which one could first enter.It is little wonder that Israel’s abode in Kadesh should have been marked by Miriam’s death there. The marvel is that this people should have been so stupid that even the death of their leaders did not suggest to them the Divine displeasure with their wilderness wanderings.The remainder of this Book of Numbers is mainly a report of hardship, sufferings and judgments, in consequence of turning their backs on Canaan at Kadesh. There are some four emphatic things in these sixteen chapters to which we call attention.

Numbers 36:1-13

REFUGE CITIES AND Chapters 35, 36.Your reading of the Book of Numbers has familiarized you with the Divine appointment of these cities, their number, location and purpose. It was God who suggested them; He determined that they should be six in all; He saw to it that they were located so as to be within half a day’s journey from every man; and he fixed their purpose as a refuge for man-slayer.They were appointed as a refuge from law. Not by Divine appointment but by human practice was death for the man-slayer accomplished by the next of kin. Now in this city of refuge God makes provision for the man-slayer who shall do his deed without malice aforethought. It was softening grace against inexorable law; it was the appointment of Divine love against the practice of human anger. But a few years ago the law of this land made every black man born beneath our flag, a slave of some white master.

The only possible escape from that slavery was to cross the Canadian line and come under the flag that made all the people, touched by its ample folds, free. When a fugitive slave crossed the Ohio river, or the Mason and Dixon line, he came into the country of friends, but in that fact he found no certain salvation.

Even there the law could lay its hand upon him and drag him back to prison or the plantation. But the law of the land did not reach one inch beyond the Canadian line. So the common law of this ancient people became inoperative at a line 2000 cubits outside the limits of the refuge cities. What a type this of the salvation that we have in Christ—a salvation which Paul expressly teaches to be freedom from the power of the law.This city of refuge was easily accessible. Many a time I have read sermons that would speak as though the gates of the city of refuge were open day and night, and I think that likely. But it is not declared in the Word.

A better access than the open gate was offered to every fleeing soul. The suburbs of these cities allotted to the priests for the grazing of their cattle were sacred grounds, and the record is that the man did not have to make his way over a closed gate or even through an open one.

All he had to do was to get himself within that suburban line. What a marvelous illustration of the accessibility of Christ! No wonder Christ uttered that gracious sentence, “Him that cometh to Me I will in no wise cast out”. Accessible to the sinner is this God, this Saviour, this refuge from sin and the slayer.Again, these cities provided a perfect shelter. In the Book of Joshua we read,“And if the avenger of blood pursue after him, then they shall not deliver the slayer up into his hand; because he smote his neighbour unwittingly, and hated him not beforetime.“And he shall dwell in that city, until he stand before the congregation for judgment, and until the death of the high-priest that shall be in those days; then shall the slayer return, and come unto his own city, and unto his own house, unto the city from whence he fled” (Joshua 20:5-6).One of the first buildings erected after the founding of Rome was one to the god of refuge. That was open to all who came.

Here the slave was free from his master, the debtor from his creditor, and the murderer from the avenging magistrates. Such were these cities of refuge, and yet they only promised and typified that one refuge which is yours and mine; and David said, “God is our refuge”.

Paul, in his Epistles to the Hebrews, speaks of the“strong consolation which we have who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us:“Which hope we have as an anchor of the soul both sure and stedfast, and which entereth into that within the veil;“Whither the forerunner is for us entered, even Jesus, made an High Priest forever after the order of Melchisedec” (Hebrews 6:18-20).Beloved, if your salvation and mine is secure, so long as our High Priest lives, then indeed it is forever and ever. “Safe in the arms of Jesus,Safe on His gentle breast,There by His love o’ershaded,Sweetly my soul shall rest.Hark! ‘tis the voice of angels,Borne in a song to me, Over the fields of Glory,Over the jasper sea.“Safe in the arms of Jesus,Safe from corroding care,Safe from the world’s temptations, Sin cannot harm me there.Free from the blight of sorrow,Free from my doubts and fears;Only a few more trials,Only a few more tears.“Jesus, my heart’s dear refuge,Jesus has died for me;Firm on the Rock of Ages,Ever my trust shall be.Here let me wait with patience,Wait till the night is o’er;Wait till I see the morning Break on the golden shore.”